Why is everyone angry at Merav Michaeli’s language?

boom! The amount of people who whipped their mouths in the face of this sentence was great. The thing is that Merav Michaeli has been speaking in female language or in a language that has been addressed to both sexes since 2001. Do you understand? For 20 years she has been persisting in the change she wants to see in space, refusing to fold in the face of ridicule reactions. But what interests me most is what still happened in those two weeks that the ridicule turned into real anger? So I gathered a number of experts and experts and posed this question to them.

Dr. Uri Moore, head of the Hebrew language department at Ben-Gurion University, believes that once the language is opened for discussion, it is perceived as something disturbing, annoying, even petty. Beyond that, it is also frightening. Stable and we control it, is not like that. This is also joined by what is called “betrayal” of tradition, on the standard “Who is it that will come and change a tradition of Hebrew now since biblical times ?!”.

“In the Hebrew language, gender segregation is so ingrained in the linguistic system that it has become so-called ‘unmarked,'” says Dr. Moore. “It is transparent to most speakers, including certain feminists. Therefore, deviating from it signifies deviating from the usual social order, which is an annoying and threatening thing. We are used from a young age to having a male, female and we are done. What else is there to talk about? “He says.

Prof. Dafna Hecker, Head of the Program for Women and Gender Studies and the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University, believes that we have a natural automatic mechanism that opposes change, even if the change is positive. “Most people will say that life is hard anyway, why complicate it further? Secondly, most men want to think of themselves as equal, nice, non-violent and non-violent men. But it takes a lot of awareness, attention and willingness to take a step back. To listen instead of talk “And to really conduct oneself as an egalitarian type in space. This is not an easy task.”

“Jonah Wallach said that the Hebrew language is a maniac sex,” adds Prof. Hecker. “There is a range of genders in languages, there are more defined languages ​​and there are less defined languages. Hebrew is very defined. The objects are also defined. Merav Michaeli and we actually come and invent new words or we speak double. It is good that they insist and insist on making it clear that language is a living thing that is constantly changing. ”

Dr. Gal Hermet is a researcher and lecturer at the Kibbutzim Seminar. In recent years she has led the Gender Initiative, which translates ideas and theories in gender, conflict management and identities, into creative tours of public space and museums in Israel and around the world. According to her, Merav no longer speaks from the “stand”, this time she speaks the language she is trying to instill as chair of the Labor Party.

“I think subconsciously, the opponents are afraid that if they talk about them in a female language, then everything they think about women, both in fantasy and in reality, could happen to them as well. They can be raped, they can be hurt, they can make fun of them. Merav Michaeli actually produces conversation. It is completely new, and when it includes Ofer Shelach in it, it does reclaiming. “

Language change is part of a long and tiring struggle for both sides. It frustrates those who seek the space that belongs to it as well, exhausting men who seek to continue to zealously maintain what they have been told belongs only to them. It is basically changing perceptions and education of years. We saw an example of such an education just this week in Rogel Alper’s article in the Haaretz newspaper, where Alper insisted on reminding Michaeli of her place in space.

“When there are 10 male and female students in my class, the male students speak two or three times more than the female students,” says Prof. Hecker. “When it happens I try to show it to my students, to show them how without noticing they take up space. They are not bad people, they are not forceful, they do not belittle women. They are just used from a very young age to do it. Unlike girls, who age They are taught very young not to take up space. “

Miriam Leibowitz-Ashraf, co-founder and director of the Inbar track in Jerusalem, a secular school for girls only, also believes that the language should be dynamic and grow together with society. “It makes men move uncomfortably when speaking in a female language. I talk to a lot of men who testify to this. For example, we have one teacher in the team because we are also a very small team. The same teacher is quite clear that when there is a majority of girls in the room, In female language, but it is not easy for him and I can understand what it is like to be in the minority or when I am not addressed in my own language, so I try to address both sexes. “

“It’s amazing to see that if I give a female lecture and there is one man in the room out of 200 women, there will always be one woman who will come, shout, protect him and say it’s a man and that it’s wrong for me to speak a female because I discriminate against him,” says Dr. Hermet. As far as this woman is concerned, it’s okay for me to darken all 200 women in the room, including myself, because ostensibly that’s how it is linguistically correct. “

Dr. Hermet explains that speaking only in masculine language is to internalize that the woman comes in second place: the one who is called, the one who is waiting to be given a place and the one who behaves nicely in the master’s house because it is not polite to insult him. Dr. Moore, on the other hand, On male and female in everything, but agree that there is definitely discrimination here and that language is a very central arena in it. “Of course it’s not just language, it’s part of a broader reality,” he clarifies and points out that everything we experience in our lives goes through language because through it we achieve and mark things.

Dr. Moore’s remarks are rooted in science: Various studies around the world have already shown that in languages ​​that are considered more defined, there is greater inequality between men and women, and that language is one of the tools for social change and equality between women and men.

Research related to the subject is currently taking place. It is headed by Dr. Tami Kricheli Katz from the Faculty of Law in Tel Aviv and Dr. Tali Regev from the Interdisciplinary Center. “We found that in countries where a defined language is spoken, there are more gaps between men and women on average,” says Dr. Krichli Katz. “But what was most interesting to find was that psychometric tests found that in male speaking, female scores were on average 15% lower than men. “While a question written in female language actually reduces the gap between the two sexes by a third.”

Meanwhile, living in a patriarchal society that does not allow women to realize their potential, brings many women to create alternative educational and professional spaces for themselves. Spaces such as real estate groups for women, work spaces for women and even the first secular school for girls only: Inbar School in Jerusalem.

Leibowitz-Ashraf, co-founder and director of the Inbar program, says that for years she was a leading educator in a mixed high school. “I did a lot of things to promote gender equality in my school, but only after putting on gender glasses and going to see such schools in the world and reading relevant studies, did I realize how difficult it is to change the social patterns we all run and conduct within. “Our actions must be taken to change the rules of the game.” She says.

This is why she decided to create with another partnership a separate space for secular girls, which aims to develop a sense of competence and give girls tools that will help them make their way to a more egalitarian society. “Our goal in a separate space is to encourage students to find their voice, and to give them tools to deal with the barriers they have to face in society. That’s definitely something I believe in.

“They go out of school once a week and meet women in a variety of fields, realizing that they can not be what they do not see. For me,” says Leibowitz-Ashraf, “the lack of sufficient women in leadership positions is due to the fact that we have hardly seen such women from a young age. “And it definitely affects the way we perceive ourselves in space. In the context of what we instill in school, Merav Michaeli is also a model, and I have no doubt that language creates reality.”

One can argue whether separate spaces for women is the right thing to do. What is certain is that this is a response to the exclusion of women, and that in the test of the result, women feel more secure in such spaces, and they reach achievements that they do not always reach in mixed spaces. Merav Michaeli does not play in a separate space. It requires being smooth, both in space and in language. She demands to play on a field whose rules were invented by men, and open it to the female audience. She’s not waiting to be given a place, she’s taking it.

And if you ask Prof. Hecker, then Merav Michaeli has already managed to make a revolution, simply because years ago no one understood what she wanted. “Now it’s finally blooming, it’s exciting,” concludes Prof. Hecker. “Whether one agrees with Max or not, she is an example of a leader who is willing to pay a price for her vision, her originality and her insistence.”